When UCLA alumnus Babken DerGrigorian received an e-mail from a friend asking him to be a field director for the Obama campaign in Florida, he seized the opportunity.
DerGrigorian, who graduated in 2008, had been involved in community organizing and founded the UCLA chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Though he had never worked on any political campaign and was critical of Obama ““ he did not consider himself a staunch supporter ““ he said he felt the election was too important to pass up.
So on Oct. 6, he found himself in Lee County, in charge of convincing people from 20 precincts in rural Florida to vote for Obama.
He was given no instructions from the Obama campaign headquarters.
“I was told to make 20 precincts blue,” DerGrigorian said.
As soon as he came to the office, he looked up data from the 2004 elections and the 2008 primaries. Almost all of the precincts had voted for Bush in the 2004 election and McCain in the primary. The area had not been challenged by Democrats in 20 years.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” DerGrigorian said.
But as he looked more closely, he saw that Bush had won fifteen out of the twenty precincts by fewer than 100 votes.
“By that point, I realized we can do this,” DerGrigorian said.
Only the remaining five precincts had consistently voted almost two-to-one for a Republican candidate. DerGrigorian decided not to put resources into those precincts and instead focused on the other fifteen.
He focused on registering voters in Lee County, where the largely Haitian population had particularly low voter registration numbers. The campaign to increase turnout particularly focused on Florida’s two weeks of early voting.
DerGrigorian coordinated more than 200 volunteers who lived in the area. He was in charge of two offices, talking to people door-to-door and phone-banking at three different locations.
Locals helped DerGrigorian reach out to their community.
“People shifted all their priorities to the campaign. They were excited that the campaign cared about them,” he said. “We had no traditional political campaign strategy. Our strategy was to talk to the people.”
Hundreds of miles away in Elkhart, Tenn., 2008 UCLA alumnus Aria Ghafari was in a similar position. He was in charge of two field offices in a town of 2,000 people, in a state, he said, where no Democrat presidential candidate had won in 44 years.
Ghafari got his start in 2007, and his work in support of Obama has been his first large political campaign.
In February, as part of Bruin Democrats, Ghafari, along with fellow 2008 UCLA graduate Curtis Whatley, went to an organizing meeting for Obama. Approximately 250 people showed up for the meeting in Santa Monica.
“You could tell people were dedicated since so many showed up before Obama’s candidacy was even announced,” Ghafari said.
When Ghafari and Whatley returned to UCLA, they started a Facebook group for Obama, and thus Bruins for Obama was formed.
“This was happening on every major campus in America. Everywhere, students were organizing on their own,” Ghafari said.
When school resumed in September, the group became more active on campus. Bruins for Obama held weekly meetings and started gearing up for the February primary.
During winter break, Ghafari went to volunteer in Iowa. The Obama headquarters in Des Moines, he said, reminded him of being at UCLA.
“Most of the field organizers were in college or recently out of school,” Ghafari said. “It was good because people were nerdy. They knew the rules of the primary system and what needed to be done.”
There was a sense of excitement, Ghafari said, and a strong dedication to Obama and his ideas ““ something he said was missing from other campaigns.
“The Hilary supporters saw the election as an important job to get them to law school or wherever else they wanted to go; Obama supporters just really wanted Obama to be president,” he said.
Ghafari and other volunteers went door-to-door in zero-degree weather, talking to constituents about the issues. “Citizens in Iowa take politics very seriously,” Ghafari said. “You really needed to know your stuff.”
Ghafari then went to Nevada for its primary and also worked on the California primary. After graduation, Ghafari was offered a position in Indiana, a dramatically different area than Iowa.
Elkhart has a large black population, and Ghafari, like DerGrigorian, set out to register voters. He and his volunteers talked to anyone they could. They went to barbershops, beauty salons, state fairs ““ anywhere people would talk to them.
The McCain campaign did not have as much money or organization as the Obama campaign, Ghafari said, and many Republicans crossed over and helped the Obama campaign.
“The former GOP county treasurer was one of our best volunteers,” Ghafari said about Elk County.
With Ghafari in Indiana was fellow UCLA alumnus Zach Baron. In 2008, Baron worked for the California state headquarters in Koreatown. In July, he drove to Indianapolis and worked for the communications team as a press assistant. As one of four people on the team, he wrote press releases, booked celebrities and politicians on radio shows, spoke to reporters and handled logistical problems as they arose.
“We did anything to get Obama’s name out,” he said.
On Election Day, all three UCLA graduates woke up at four in the morning in preparation for the big day.
Baron was constantly on the phone, clearing up logistical problems and booking last minute radio and TV appearances.
Ghafari and DerGrigorian were at the polls, making sure the ballots were being counted accurately.
“The senior people said Indiana was going to be close. They thought McCain would win the election, but we really wanted to win Indiana,” Baron said.
At 11 p.m. Eastern time, the general election was called. Hours later, Indiana and Florida called in favor of Obama.
For DerGrigorian especially, it was a great achievement. Fourteen of his 20 precincts voted for Obama. In 2004, only one of these precincts had voted for John Kerry.
“It was surreal at the end, because it all ended so quickly, and we were done,” Baron said.
Later in the week, all three graduates drove home. DerGrigorian will be working as a community organizer in Berkeley, and Ghafari and Baron are applying to law school. All said they would like to continue being involved in politics.
But today they are watching the inauguration: Ghafari and DerGrigorian from Washington, D.C., and Baron from Sacramento.
Ghafari is reuniting with the staff he worked with in Indiana.
“There are thousands of people on every street corner. Obama T-shirts are everywhere,” Ghafari said about the crowds in Washington, D.C. “Obama has more support than ever. Now it’s time to see how he legislates.
“When people take the first small step and decide that they can have a say about who represents them, it opens a lot of doors,” Ghafari said. “The key is to want to be involved.”